Seekers of Love
by Amiya Kumar Hazra and Keith Gunn
Hyderabad: Meher Mownawani Publications, 2008
Reviewed by Kendra Crossen Burroughs
I’m a greater admirer of Amiya Kumar Hazra, author of the unforgettable Memoirs of a Zetetic: My Life with Meher Baba, so I was pleased to see this new book with his name on it, along with that of his friend Keith Gunn. Professor Hazra has collected, over many years, a number of personal stories by Indian Baba-lovers, most of them first-person narratives originally recounted in the speaker’s native Hindi, some of them retold by Amiya or Keith. Here Westerners will encounter some unfamiliar names and faces as well as old friends such as Pratap Ahir and Subhadra Pund of the Pune bhajan group; Shaligram Sharma, who toured the U.S. last year; Gita Ram Tiwari, a familiar figure at Meher Baba’s Samadhi; Pleader, a member of the mandali who was hell-bent on God-Realization; Janglimaster, “Baba’s servant”; and Kharman Masi, an important woman in Baba’s circle who He said would be His father in the next Avataric advent.
The book will be a treat for Westerners who appreciate the unique sensibility that Indians bring to their experiences with Baba. In his introduction, Keith points out two notable aspects seen in these stories. One is the degree of hostility that Hindus have had to suffer in their own communities because of their devotion to a “foreign” master—even to the extent of their lives being threatened. For example, in one story an invisible force narrowly saves a Baba-lover from being murdered by co-workers. (The examples in this book are Hindu, but certainly Parsi and Muslim Baba-lovers have also endured social opposition.)
The other aspect is the degree to which Indian lovers take “occult realities” for granted. I’ve often thought that the many instances in which Baba discouraged attachment to miracles or unusual spiritual experiences were chiefly aimed at His Eastern lovers. In India people grow up with a much greater awareness of God and the sacred dimension of life than in our society. (However, even an Indian is bound to be a bit startled when, as told here, a smelly, naked mastani suddenly appears and secures a seat for him on a crowded train.) I assume that Baba wanted His Eastern lovers to learn to depend less on the miraculous and to love Him for His own sake. He often told people in America and Europe, “The Eastern lovers revere me, bow down to me and worship me — but I want only love from you" (Lord Meher, 6: 1895). Yet, judging by these stories, Baba has clearly not withheld amazing experiences from His Indian lovers: rooms flooded with the fragrance of roses, Baba mystically standing in for someone taking an examination, the apparition of Baba at the deathbed of a loved one, a tiger lying down like a lamb. We even learn that someone who was harassing a Baba-lover dropped dead! Who says prayers aren’t answered?
Even in the land of the miraculous, where gurus are common, Meher Baba stands out as something special: Pratap remarks that “in our traditions, Indians have information about God and all that, but until we came to know about Meher Baba, we had no thought of coming in God’s contact.” Incidentally, the book presents Pratap’s own version of a much-misrepresented incident in which Baba asked him as a young teenager to remove all his clothing. The event remains mysterious, in that we don’t know why Baba did it, but I think Pratap’s acceptance of it as a holy moment helps us to contemplate the mystery in the right spirit.
I’d love to give away more of the content, but I won’t spoil it for you. Seekers of Love is a welcome contribution to a growing oral history, and I thank Amiya and Keith for bringing us closer to our Indian Baba family through these accounts. The authors promise a sequel with stories from the West and conclude with one sample, from Vreiny Truitmann of Switzerland.
Excerpts from Seekers of Love
My hobbies were carpentry and making things. Where the Trust Office is today was my workshop in Baba’s time. I had a workbench, and I used to make whatever took my fancy. I had some aptitude for engineering, but I had a greater desire to be a pilot. My mother’s brother was a pilot, and he was such a romantic figure. Like most young boys, I thought piloting would be very exciting.
Once when we were seated before Baba, He told my brother Vinod, “You do M.Sc. [pursue a master’s degree program in science]!”
I spoke up and said, “Baba, what should I do? What should I become?” Baba didn’t reply. I told Him, “Baba, I want to be a pilot.”
Baba said, “No, you will not be a pilot.” But in my mind I said, “Let Baba say whatever He wants to say. I am going to become a pilot.” That was as late as 1967-1968. Soon after that, I became myopic, and I had to wear glasses, and then it was out of the question to be a pilot. That’s how He made sure I wouldn’t be a pilot.
…Meher Baba works slowly and imperceptibly. Darshan always started with an embrace from Baba and the opportunity to kiss Baba on His cheeks. Even as a boy, I used to feel that I was kissing the cheeks of God. I used to think, “Nothing is left in life. The greatest thing that can ever happen in life has happened and now there is nothing more.” In my childlike way I thought that now that I had seen God there was nothing left to see. But I was conscious that I might have years of life ahead of me. As the years have passed by, I feel how little I know God, and how little I have seen of Him, and I am very mindful of the times Meher Baba would point to His own body and say. “This is not Meher Baba. This is only the coat that I wear to make Myself visible.” As the years pass, you realize how He has to make you grow inwardly.
—Raj Prem Khilnani (who became a police superintendent)
…So my mother and father [Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Vajpayee] went into Guruprasad bungalow. We children were with them but there was a ban on children, so we had to stay outside. When they came out, we asked father what happened. He said, "I am unable to tell you, because when I put my head on His feet, I somehow lost consciousness."
We asked our mother what happened. She said, "I never had any faith in saints and babas, and even when I was in their presence I never had any respect for them. I was not interested in Meher Baba, so I remember Guruprasad bun¬galow more than Meher Baba. What I saw was very objec¬tionable according to my orthodox concept. I saw Meher Baba giving embrace to both men and to women. This is such a person who is embracing women? I didn't go up to Him because I didn't want a darshan in which He would embrace me." Baba understood the whole thing, called her to him and instead of embracing her asked her to touch His feet. She touched Baba's feet and came back to her place.
Thereafter Papa took Baba's darshan on two additional occasions. Papa had read somewhere that Baba used to wear his hair in a pigtail. My father wanted to see the pigtail of Meher Baba and there was a long line at the dar-shan, and he also stood in the queue, and it was a hurried affair, just a second or two, because it was a long queue. You just touch Baba's feet and you go out. The moment he took a step aside, a member of Baba's mandali came up to him and said, "Have you seen Baba?"
He said, “Yes, I have.”
“Please come back. Baba wants you to have another darshan.” Mr. Francis Brabazon objected, saying that he had already taken Baba’s darshan.
“But do you not see, Mr. Brabazon, that Baba is calling him?”
When he got to Baba, Baba said, “You stand behind my chair.” My father stood behind Baba’s chair, where he obtained just that view of Baba’s pigtail for which he had wished! Papa used to tell me that it had been a great honor and a great good fortune for him.
—Siddharth Vajpayee